The Shifting Power
by canadiankiwi
Summary: *ON HIATUS* Pain. It had once been naught but a word to her. But now it was there, and it was real. The land is in turmoil. Galbatorix is growing stronger, and once he takes command of this strange new power he will be indestructible. OCs and slightly AU.
1. Hoplessly Confusing, Yet Necessary

I don't own Eragon or Saphira, or any of the characters from the Inheritance Cycle. This is all just for fun. I do own the character you don't recognize.

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Pain. It had once been naught but a word to her. It had been just a jumble of letters on a page. It had been a meaningless sound in a speech. It had been the distress that others felt. Now it was the anguish that she felt.

Terror. This was what she felt every time she strayed away. It was what she felt if the others left. It was what she felt every time something moved in a shadow. And it was for certain what she felt when _he _was near.

Secrecy. It was what they would have to maintain if they were to be safe. They could no longer wander so carefreely. Not since _he_ had found out. He was why they had to be so secretive. Lies, deciet and the secret were the only things keeping them alive now.

Magic. Magic was the reason for all of the secrecy, and it was she who had summoned it. She was the one who found the key and bound them to it. She who had only meant for good, had cursed them all. The magic was more powerful than _him_. Magic was why _he_ was coming.

Stones. The stones were what kept the magic. What chained it to them. Without them, they were lost; powerless. Certainly they were doomed. They understood, but they wouldn't let go. They trusted her. But how could they when she had brought the stones? When it was she who had cursed them?

Friendship. That is what kept them together. What kept them strong. They had known her all their lives. They were friends. They had known the dangers of what was coming, yet they stayed. Friendship let them trust her. Friendship let them stay close. They knew that, if anything, friendship would help them through.

If only they knew.

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Okay, I know this is short, but it's a prologue, what do you expect? It will get longer, I promise. Now, you see that little button at the bottom of the page? It says review. Pretty please press it?


	2. In Which The Story Truly Begins

Sadly, I do not own Eragon, Saphira, or any of the characters you recognize. They stem from the work of Christopher Paolini.

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"I can't let you go! I promised!"

Darien pushed the hysterical girl off of his shoulder in disgust.

"Cut it out. I just want to get some sunshine in my system. We've been stuck in this cave for ages," Darien moved towards the cavern exit, before the girl, their leader, jumped in front of him.

"You can't! It's too dangerous. Besides, the hunting party has already gone out, and Shane went to go get water. That is too many already. Please," the girl added desperately.

Darien shook his head and marched out of the cave. There was a time when their leader would have shrugged the little things off like a bug. Now she went insane every time one of them so much a sneezed. If he could have, he would have left, but his ties with his friends were too strong, and his friends were in that cave.

He trusted his friends enough to stay with them, but he didn't trust the girl one bit.

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Eragon and Saphira soared over the Cargellachie Mountains, enjoying a rare moment of peace. It should have been relaxing, but it wasn't really. Both of them were edgy being out in the open. Finally, they found a quiet clearing and Saphira landed with a thump. She let Eragon slide off, and then the great dragon flapped her wings impatiently.

_Little one. I must eat now. I will be back soon._

Eragon nodded and watched as she soarded off over the clouds. He sighed, drew his sword and proceeded to have a sparring match with a weeping willow tree. Then, something startled him. It might have been that he heard the breathing, or the quiet footsteps, though it was more a presence than a sound that prompted him to turn around. And what he saw suprised him.

It was a person, a boy really, not much older than himself. A fleeting look passed between the two, before the strange boy went tearing off through the trees. Eragon raced after him. Though the stranger was fast, he was weighed down by several water gourds, and Eragon easily caught up with him. He yanked on the strange boy's arm.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Eragon demanded.

A furious yet terrified look passed over the stranger's face. Then Eragon felt an electric shock course through his veins, as if he had been struck by lightning. Suprised, he wrenched his arm from the strange boy's, and the latter ran off. Eragon was too startled to chase him. The shock had definitely come from the stranger, but Eragon could not fathom how.

He sat under a tree, puzzling, while he waited for Saphira. He didn't have long to wait, for the mighty dragon soon flew over Eragon and landed in the clearing.

_Ah, little one. If only you were a dragon. We could have shared the wonderful meal of deer over the hills. _

_I had enough of an adventure right here, Saphira. I saw..._

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"It was a person, honest it was. Fast as a deer and strong as an ox. When he caught up with me, I had to shock him to get away."

Their leader stepped out of the shadows. "You used your magic? Shane, you are supposed to keep your powers hidden at all costs! You may have ruined it all!"

Shane waved his hands in the air. "But don't you see? I had no choice! He could have dragged me off to Galbatorix, and then what would I have done, eh?"

The girl buried her face in her hands. "Forgive me," she muttered weakly. "I wasn't thinking, I...sorry." She walked away silently, but her peers could all tell she was crying.

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Yes, it's short, but they do get longer. Promise. I have the next chapter written, so if I get some reviews, I will post it right away.


	3. Troubles and Trials

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Are you sure that is what you saw, little one? A person in the Chargellachie Mountains?

_"_Of course. A human, all flesh and blood."

_Not a dwarf? You could have easily been mistaken in the excitement. _

"I know what I saw Saphira! Why don't you believe me?" Eragon stalked off angrily. He was never wrong. How could his friend question him like that? There was only thing to do. He would have to find the strange person and learn their purpose for being in the mountains.

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Carmen stood up from the crooked chair she had been perched on. "Should I- go after her?" she inquired. Carmen didn't think their leader should be alone at a time like this. It was too dangerous, too hard. The others agreed, nodding a nod of consent.

Carmen grimaced and slipped into the back room where her friend was. The nook was dark and lonely, but there was no reason it should be anything else. Everything they had was dark and gloomy.

"I knew you wouldn't be long," came a soft voice. Carmen smiled. The two had been friends all their lives. These troubled times hadn't changed that. It only meant that their circle grew.

"What happened back there?" Carmen asked to her friend. There was a shuffling at the back of the cave and a figure stepped out. The muted shine of the lanterns cast a soft glow across the face of their leader. The face appeared tired and paler than Carmen had ever seen it. She rushed to her friend. "Oh, hun! You look awful! What is wrong?"

Her companion looked at her piercingly. "You know perfectly well what is troubling me. I yelled at Shane, Marie cries at the drop of a hat, Darien is becoming more distant, Darla is terrified out of her wits, the magic is getting stronger, Galbatroix is practically on our heels and the stones are draining me. To top it all of, now someone is nearby, and who knows what will happen then!" With that, she began to sob. Carmen looked at her pityingly. Her friend had changed so much. Carmen rubbed the leader's shoulder gently as she thought back into the past.

They had grown up together in the village of Banwythe, in the southernmost tip of the Hadarac Desert. Her friend was an orphan and practically lived with Carmen's family. They were always laughing and inventing one thing or another to do.

When they were very small they liked to put on plays and create mud pie bakeries. Then came school. Carmen and her friend quickly bonded with the other children in their class, and they all became inseparable. They would gather after school and talk and laugh and make up wild stories. Carmen's friend soon became everyones favorite person to be around; she just had that charisma.

The magical curse had come the year they all graduated from the Banwythe Place of Higher Learning. Two days after finishing their education, the group had taken a walk in the mountains one last time before they went their separate ways.

Their leader had started the expedition, but that one trip over a rock changed everything. The girl had stumbled and loosed that stone with her foot. Under the rock was a trapdoor. What would you have done in their place? Of course they wanted to investigate.

They found a large cavern filled with beetles. The minute the bugs were exposed to the light they turned to gems, glittering in every colour of the rainbow. They were drawn to the teens by some strange magnetic force.

Then, their leader went into a strange spasm. No one knew what was going on in her mind, but everyone could see the pain and fear etched on her face. And as quickly as the seizure had started, it ended. She said that they were know as powerful as the King Galbatorix, and they had to guard their stones with their lives.

Carmen shuddered. That was almost what it was coming to, as an envoy for the King had seen them practicing their magic in a field one day. They had gone into hiding ever since.

Soon the sobs subsided from the leader. Carmen turned to her. "Are you alright now?"

Her friend nodded her weary head. Then she shook it. "Carmen. My most trusted friend, can I tell you something? It is something I have never revealed before. I need to tell someone before I go crazy."

Carmen inclined her head a tad, wondering what could possibly be eating away at her comrade.

"When we first found the stones, I had that strange fit you described to me. While I was in it, a voice was speaking to me. I had unlocked the hideout of Lochheid, one of the old Riders. This was his life project, and I had disturbed it. Now I had control of a dangerous power, one that our _dear_ king would kill to get. Whatever happened, I would never be free of the magic, nor could I transfer the leadership role to anyone else. While any of you can leave the curse of the stones behind you, I am going to be stuck with it forever. Everytime we use the magic, it drains something out of me. Over these last four months, I have become weaker than I was. It is driving me insane, Carmen! There is nothing I can do! Eventually, I will be weak enough to be beaten by that power-hungry king and we will all be killed!"

Carmen gasped. Her friend had collapsed on the floor and became overcome with another bout of tears. "You musn't tell anybody, you promise? No one can know. No one."

Carmen reached over and hugged her friend. "You can trust me, hun. I will do everything I can to protect you. No one is going to learn this secret."

What Carmen could not know was this; as she spoke those last words, a shadowy figure slunk out of the cave and towards a secret exit, having heard the whole thing. Trust was about to become a big issue.

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So, love it? Hate it? Anything I can clarify? Let me know!


	4. Magics Collide

Thanks be to **xt-291** for the review!

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The sky was glinting an azure blue with a few whispy white clouds breaching the colour. The mountaintops dotted the horizon, looking like a crop of stalagmites sprouting from the ground. Eragon thought it was a perfect day. But then he remembered his fight with Saphira, and he was sullen again.

_Little one! _

_I am not in the mood to talk, Saphira. I just need a few minutes alone._

_But I need to tell you something!_

_Later. _With that, he blocked his mind, not wanting to speak with his dragon just then. He needed time to cool off. He could feel Saphira's subtle attemps to penetrate the barriers, so he just doubled his efforts.

A moment later, he felt himself hanging upside-down, his foot caught in a deer trap. Eragon rolled his eyes, and muttered a spell that would undo the knotted rope. Or should have undone the knot. For some reason it wasn't working against the cord. There was magic in this somehow, but Eragon couldn't sense any. "What the-" He proceeded to run off a stream of rapid fire spells mingled with some nasty swears. He stopped for a moment to take a breath, and heard a snicker behind him.

"Cussing at it won't help."

Eragon struggled to spin himself around and found himself looking at a tall boy with reddish brown hair, and a very amused grin on his face. Then the boy waved to someone Eragon couldn't see and shouted out. "Oi! A little help over here would be nice!"

Two other people stepped into the clearing; a short boy with deeply tanned skin, and a blonde girl with a bow across her shoulders.

"So what did- a _person_?" The tanned boy looked incrediously at Eragon.

"Do you think it's the one Shane spoke of?" The girl asked her companions.

"Well, you would know, eh Ress?" The red head punched the blond girl playfully on the shoulder.

"Well, the others will be interested anyways," the dark haired boy chuckled.

"Will you stop talking about me like that? I am right here," Eragon snapped.

"Aw, stuff it kid," the girl, Ress, chirped.

"At least let me down," Eragon retaliated.

"Well, I don't know," the red haired boy said, stroking his chin with mock thoughtfulness. "What do you say, Kay?"

The other boy, Kay apparently, crossed his arms. "We could just leave him hanging there. The rope isn't budging, and only Urgals can reach that high. Ress?"

The girl tossed her hair. "I vote we take him back. Our dear leader will have many questions. Your call, Aiden."

Eragon's temper flared. He was annoyed with these people; they were hardly older than him, yet they were speaking as if they held all the power in the world. Not to mention the dangers that surrounded strangers these difficult times. They could be working for Galbatorix!

"Brisingr!" He shouted, aiming the flame to the trio of teenagers holding him captive. But it never reached them. The one called Aiden held out his hand, and a strange force field appeared around the would be victims of Eragon's spell. The fire gently petered out, as if it were a whisp of smoke.

Ress arched her eyebrows. "Feisty, aren't we?"

Eragon assumed the meanest face he could manage with all of the blood rushing to his head. "Let. Me. Down," he growled. The next thing he knew, he was lying flat on his back, free of the animal trap. Before Eragon could scramble to his feet and race away, two hands clamped down on his shoulders. "Don't even think about it, pal," a voice rang in his ear. The two strange boys hauled Eragon to a standing position. He tried again to send a spell at them, but it was no use. And while he was desperately trying to use his magic, they bound his hands behind his back.

_Saphira!_ He called in his mind. _Help!_

_Did you finally decide to listen to me?_

_I am sorry. It was wrong of me to shut you out._

_You are forgiven, little one. Now what do you need?_

_People-- strangers caught me in their deer trap. Now they are planning on kidnapping me or something. _

_I am on my way._

No a minute later, a shadow crossed over the clearing, as the blue dragon flew overhead.

"Sweet Petunias," the girl whispered. Then all of them lept aside as Saphira breathed fire. Eragon could tell his dragon was trying to roast his captors, while sparing him.

_Feel free to use your magic anytime, little one._

_It doesn't work! They are immune for some reason. _

_Well then I will keep trying to barbeque._

Saphira kept circling, breathing jets of fire as she tried to find a place to land.

"Peace, Dragon! Stay your fury!" Ress cried. Eragon shook his head. Saphira would never listen to these people, especially in the state she was in. But again his captors suprised him. The girl called Ress yelled out again, this time in a strange tounge.

"Lektai versto Doctai! Drost charva!"

Saphira's contorted face softened. There were about five minutes of silence as the girl and the dragon stared each other down. Finally Saphira's voice appeared in the back of his mind.

_They mean us no harm, little one. Follow them._

Eragon felt left out. Obviously something had happened that he was not aware of. He stood rooted to the spot, puzzling over what could have been said. He was so lost in thought that he didn't notice when they cut his bonds and started walking away.

"Oi!" Aiden was snapping his fingers in front of Eragon's face. "You planning on coming, Lerdai?"

"What did you just call me?" Eragon asked.

The boy laughed in his face. "You're kidding! You don't know? No wonder you zoned out! Come on, and we just might explain. Drost charva." Then the boy walked away, chortling to his friends.

Eragon followed them, but grudgingly, and only because Saphira was flying over him. The strangers lead him winding around trees and such a twisted path, that Eragon could not have hoped to find his way back to the clearing ever again. They stopped in front of a large stone face on the side of a mountain. Kay pulled a chain from his pocket. A shining brown gem hung on the end, which the boy pressed into the wall.

The stone wall began to tremble, and it shifted slightly to reveal a gap which the teens started to squeeze into. Eragon followed reluctantly.

_I am right here, little one. If you alert me of trouble, I will push aside the mountain to find you._

Eragon made his way through the winding passage, careful to stick on the path the strangers led him on. Suddenly they stopped, and Eragon crashed into the girl's back. Ress gestured to a door built into the rock. "Go on."

He slowly opened the door, not sure what he would find. He certainly wasn't expecting what he did see. People. Around twenty people sitting around on rickety furniture, laughing and talking. But they all became hushed when Eragon entered the room, like they knew he was different. A scrawny boy lounging on a cot broke the silence. "I guess it's just hardtack for dinner, then."

That brought on a few chuckles, but also more curious stares. Eragon began to feel very uncomfortable with all of these people gazing at him.

"What is going on? I haven't heard you guys this quiet for years."

Eragon turned around to see who spoke. It was a girl, relatively average, but Eragon could tell she had high authority over this group. Her dark hair framed her face, and her green eyes had a strange twinkle to them. She had a look on her face like it could admonish or break into laughter all at once. She turned the stern look on Eragon and his captors.

"What is this? Tell me what you think the word dangerous means, because this certainly falls under my definition."

Aiden stared at her. "Stro Lerdai," he stated simply.

That word must have meant something important to these people, for the girls face softened considerably. She turned to Eragon. "Matakai, Lerdai. Drost charva." Suddenly her eyes flashed and Eragon found himself thrust into his memories. This girl was searching his mind just like that! And she wasn't being nice about it either. Finally she withdrew, leaving Eragon shaking with fury.

"What was that for?"

The girl glared at him. "You didn't really think I would be daft enough to let you alone?"

Eragon shook his head. "I don't know what kind of sick game you people are playing, but I don't wish to be a part of it!" The girl arched her eyebrows. "You do not know?" A snort came from the back of the room.

"Who is this kook? I didn't think anyone had not heard of us!" A boy with short spiky hair was watching Eragon, snorting impertiently.

"Stuff it, Dar," the girl snapped. "It is just another wrinkle to iron out. It is not like your shirt was perfect." Then she pointed at Eragon. "You need to come with me, as well as you three," she waved her hands at Eragon's captors, "and Shane. There are some things that need to be said."

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"My Leige, I have the information you wanted."

"Then speak."

"The girl can be defeated with a few simple spells. It is only a matter of time before she is weakened."

"Excellent."

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Review Please! The more reviews, the faster I get the chapters up!


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